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What You’re Eating: Fall Harvest Menus

There is a chill in the air, and that can only mean one thing. It’s Autumn. Yes, despite the lack of fall foliage, even Los Angeles celebrates this great season. There is no denying that the LA culinary community is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with and this is the time of year menus are being revamped to show true talents by adding seasonal staples to the classics. Around every corner, and in every part of the city, the next master chefs are dreaming up signature dishes and “Wow-ing” foodies everywhere, while the well-known culinary rock stars are continuously raising the bar higher and higher. Either way, it’s a win-win for LA.

Fig & Olive and it’s Executive Chef Pascal Lorange has debuted their new seasonal menu for lunch, dinner and weekend brunch embracing some of the local produce Southern California has to offer. The menu, crafted to be shareable, marries flavors from the France, Italy and Spain with the restaurant’s signature olive oils and fresh herbs in a variety of seasonally-driven items and entrees including mouth watering items like the Pumpkin Sage Ravioli. The entree comes with free-range chicken, riccota, pumpkin olive oil and aged balsamic and is truly one of the highlights on the menu. Other standouts include the Shrimp Fettuccine, Whole Branzino and the Salmon Burger.

Does the name CJ Jacobson ring a bell? Well it should. After two seasons on Bravo’s Top Chef, Jacobson is the Executive Chef of Girasol bringing his passion for “hyper-seasonal” cuisine to Studio City. Having just introduced a new Autumn menu with ingredients procured from the Angeles National Forest and local farmers’ markets, Jacobson is showcasing hearty flavors in dishes like Chocolate Persimmons with Burrata Cheese, grilled red dandelions, crispy lentil and basil, and Wagyu Flat Iron Steak Grilled in Pine Needles with black chanterelle puree and horseradish cream.

There is something very special about Napa Valley Grille that many other restaurants cannot boast. The Seasonally Fall Harvest menu features locally grown produce from Southern California artisan purveyors, as well as “wild and foraged” ingredients from the family-ran “Foods in Season”. This allows the menu to stay alive and constantly be changing to provide the freshest ingredients possible. Dishes that have been added to the new menu include: Warm Brussel Sprout Salad with poached egg and Lamb Ragu with handmade pappardelle pasta.

Celebrating it’s third anniversary, the Beverly Hills restaurant, Scarpetta is embracing its fall menu to the fullest. Scarpetta “sources and showcases local farmers and purveyors through dishes that best represent the product.” Introducing a mix of carefully thought out ingredients and fresh made pasta make the dishes explode with big bold flavors of the season. DiStefano’s Burrato provides a classic dish with a seasonal spin of spiced pears, figs and walnuts. The perfect fall harvest soup is the Puree of Celery Root and Porcinis with bay scallops, fuji apples and truffle. And for something “dolce”, it does not get much better than the Autumn Corn Catalana pumpkin bread with malt crunch and stout gelato.